Treating Mosquito bites and Bee Sting First Aid

Learn how to treat insect bites such as treating
mosquito bites and bee sting first aid.

Some people are more reactive to insect
bites. I, unlike many other people I
know, do not get welts or red marks from mosquitos. I have seen some people with such large
reactions to mosquitos that we thought that they had something serious wrong
with them. Not just a few mosquito
bites! Plus, I’ve seen someone react
severely to a bee sting, even though they’d never had problems in the
past.

Use undiluted Tea tree oil when treating mosquito bites - it is an
antiseptic and anti-inflammatory, and non-irritating. (test a section of skin
first). If it irritates the skin, dilute
it with jojoba or almond oil (1 part tea tree oil, 5 parts jojoba or almond
oil).

Or use Peppermint essential oil

-
menthol increases the
circulation and this will disperse the anti-coagulant from the mosquito.

3) To
reduce itching, use any of the following methods.

If one doesn’t work when treating mosquito bites, wash away and try
another. One is bound to work for you!

4) If
the itching is unbearable: Apply anaesthetic cream such as PrameGel
and Caladryl.

5) If
the swelling is severe, an anti-histamine such as Benadryl may need to be taken
orally, and your camper may need to go to the hospital to get steroid creams.

6) If
the red mark is growing in size, with pen, draw around it and keep track if the
red area is growing in size. Go to a
hospital or doctor to see if it is something more severe than a mosquito bite.

7) If
you have difficulty breathing, nausea or dizziness, you may be having an
allergic reaction. Go to a hospital.

Treat ant bites the same way as mosquito
bites.

Bee Sting First Aid

Honey bees will leave their stinger, while
hornets, wasps and yellow jackets do not leave a stinger.

1) Get
out of the area. There may be more bees
in the area, and the bee will release a smell to let other bees know that they
have an enemy to come and sting you too!

2)
Remove stinger - very important with bee sting first aid!The sooner you
get the stinger removed, the more severe the reaction. A good way to remove it is scraping the
stinger out with a credit card. The
faster you can get the stinger out is more important than the method of removal.

3) Keep
watch for breathing difficulties. Even
if someone has been stung by a bee and not reacted, they can react severely to
a sting at another time. The bee sting
first aid for severe reactions is an Epi-pen.
This will allow the person to breathe for 30 minutes while you get them
to the hospital. This is a life
threatening condition. Other symptoms of
severe anaphylactic reactions are: itching, redness, hives and shortness of
breath. If you do not have any Epi-pen,
anti histamines such as Benadryl will help slow the reaction.

4)
Bee sting first aid for normal reactors is to apply an icepack to reduce
swelling. Apply calamine lotion to
reduce itching.

5)
If anyone is stung more than 10 times, take them to the hospital.

Although biting insects are annoying (no
one loves them). You can still enjoy
camping by avoiding them as best you can.